LiBi: 



OF CONGRESS. 



# 

{united states of AMERICA 



Why Weepest Thou? 



OR, 



The Voices of Dyiiig Believers. 



BY THE 

Rev. JOHN HALL, D. D. 

NEW YORK. 

AUTHOR OF '' CAKE CAST UPON THE LORD," ETC. 



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New York: ^ 
Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 
770 Broadway, Cor. 9th Street. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1ST3, by 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 

D.C. 



The Library 

Ob Congress 



WASHINGTON 



EDWARD 0. JENKINS. ROBERT R U T T E R. 

PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, BINDER. 

'iO N. WILLIAM ST., N. Y. 84 beekman street, n. v. 



THE VOICES OF DYING BE- 
LIEVERS. 

A LIFE that was unique, full of 
romantic interest, singularly pure, 
and, so far as we have unquestionable 
evidence, nearly blameless, closed 
with this communication to the band 
of brothers : ^* I die : and God will 
surely visit you." (Gen. 50 : 24.) 
Joseph shared the hope of his fa- 
thers; counted confidently upon 
Canaan being given to the race, and 
exacted a pledge from his brethren 
that his bones should accompany 
those who went to take possession. 

The last words of eminent men have 
a universal interest. The last words 
of conspicuous saints pass from lip to 
lip among Christians. Who has not 
heard the parting words of John 
Wesley: "The best of all is, God is 

(3) 



4 IV//V WEEPEST THOU? 

with us/' '' I shall be satisfied with 
thy likeness — satisfied — satisfied,'* 
said his brother Charles. Jonathan 
Edwards said good-bye to all his 
children, looked about, and said, 
'' Where is Jesus of Nazareth, my 
never-failing friend ?" and he fell 
asleep and found Him. The Rev. 
Pliny Fisk gave a final message to 
his brethren, '' Live near to Christ, 
dwell in love, and wear out in the 
service of Christ.'' 

Such words may well have a pecu- 
liar charm for us, when they distil as 
dew from the lips of those whom we 
love. The writer lately had the par- 
ticulars of the remov^al of a former 
parishioner and valued friend, whom 
he had known for twenty years — one 
of those often in the furnace, '' puri- 
fied, and made white and tried.'* 
Her cheiished word from Scripture 
(Deut. 33 : 2f) was, '' The eternal God 



TVJIV WEEPEST THOU? 5 

is my refuge, and underneath are the 
everlasting arms," and she was wont 
to add, ''• Death is only falling into his 
arms/' It is not without reason that 
such words have a significance to us. 
Near the heavenly gates, Christians 
are less influenced in their judgments 
by lower life than when in its move- 
ments. Earth is less potent now 
than it was wont to be. They are 
also freed from the ordinary motives 
to speak for effect. They are honest. 
Many of their impressions are recti- 
fied. Death is a mighty disenchanter, 
not to the evil only, but also to the 
good. The common and transient 
interests of life seem trifling, almost 
an impertinence. The great and 
abiding concerns only suit the flitting 
and solemn movements. Men bring 
out the most momentous of their 
cares, and say, like Joseph, ** I die, 
but God will visit you." 



6 IVI^y WEEP EST THOU? 

An analysis and arrangement of 
the thonghts that connect themselves 
with these words, (having regard to 
facility of recollection,) may, by the 
blessing of the Divine Comforter, be 
a means of strength to some mourner. 
We notice : 

I. The two-fold effect of death to 
the saints. To begin with, it separ- 
ates believers from their friends. The 
bod}' remains to them ; and so much 
are we enthralled by sense that we 
do not seem to ourselves to have 
quite parted from them while it is 
with us. But they go away; what 
made them dear to us — what lived 
and will ever live— what had charac- 
ter, and deserved esteem and won 
affection — that has gone forever from 
us below ? It is the envelope, torn 
open, that we have; the letter is else- 
where. The body expressed, repre- 
sented, served, cooperated with the 



WHY WEEPESr THOU? 7 

spirit, but it did not constitute the 
person. Between us and the real 
life, a great gulf is fixed, impassable 
to us while we are in the body. So 
Peter says to his friends : '' I think it 
meet, as long as I am in this taber- 
nacle, to stir you up by putting you 
in remembrance." (2 Peter 1:13.) 
Neither as a spirit to be communi- 
cated with by man on earth, nor as 
an advocate for them in Heaven, did 
he expect to have influence with 
them, or for them, after his '* de- 
cease" (v. 15). So Paul says : ^* Having 
a desire to depart and be with Christ.'' 
When your beloved ones die, they 
leave you. You cannot reach them 
when they are gone, with your en- 
dearments or your services. Pay all 
these debts now. You cannot re- 
ceive from them here any more. 
Get all the good you can from them 
now. 



8 J^FJi'^Y WEEP EST THOU? 

2. But if there be something sad- 
dening- in this fact, there is, at least, a 
partial offset to it : for, in the second 
place, death reunites believers to 
those who have gone before them. 
They have compensation for the 
pain of parting. How soon it is 
swallowed up in the joy of re-union. 
Often they have more friends, even 
kindred, above than below. Often — 

" The mother meets on high, 
The babes she lost in infancy." 

She has been more sure about them, 
than about those who remain below. 
More commonly and naturall}^ there 
are husbands or wives, brothers or 
sisters, parents, grand-parents, some 
who had faded into the mist of years, 
now beo^inninof to stand out with 
wonderful vividness again. Joseph 
will nevermore be parted from his 
father, the mention of whom broke 



WHY WEEP EST THOU? g 

him down. He will now for the first 
time know that beautiful mother who 
passed through the gate of death, as 
his brother Benjamin entered into 
life, and who was still the cherished 
bride in the memory of aged Jacob. 
He will know the meek -spirited 
Isaac, and Abraham of mighty faith, 
and many another great father of our 
race whose name lingered in his 
memory. The mystery of Melchize- 
dek will be no mystery to him. This 
is not unworthy of our notice. There 
are Christian persons, particularly of 
social temperament and genial na- 
ture, to whom the grave has a cer- 
tain aspect of awful solitude. Rea- 
son is in no doubt, but the feeling will 
return that somehow they will be in 
the grave and consciously alone ; and, 
indeed, when we lay our beloved 
dead in the earth, or not less chilling, 
in the damps and silence of the dark 



10 JVHV WEEP EST THOU? 

vault, perhaps to the mournful music 
of wintry winds, or amid driving 
snows, it is hard to correct habitual 
feeling by the sober reason, and to 
remember that they are not there, 
but gone to "' the spirits of the just 
made perfect, and to God, the Judge 
of all." But so it is ; and when an 
irremovable sadness comes over you 
in view of the separation, think of 
the gain — even on this low ground — 
to them. They a/e parted from you ; 
but how dear, and noble, and numer- 
ous, is the company into which they 
have entered ! 

II. We turn, in the second place, 
to the two-fold assurance of a dying 
believer. '' I die," said Joseph. That 
is felt to be sure, by every believer. 
The word had all along reminded 
him that this event was certain by 
God's appointment. Life-long ob- 



WHY WEEP EST THOU? n 

servation confirmed the intimation — 
" the villages keep sending forth their 
funerals '' — and every pain of body 
emphasized the notice. And now 
the sense of decaying strength, per- 
chance the agony endured — if not this, 
the sensible decline of all the powers 
— assure the behever that the end is 
near. 

" The hour of my departure 's come ; 
I hear the voice that calls me home ; 
At last, O Lord, let trouble cease, 
And let thy servant die in peace." 

So wrote Logan, but he could 
add: 

'* I leave the world without a tear. 
Save for the friends I held so dear ; 
To heal their sorrows. Lord, descend. 
And to the sorrowing prove a friend." 

For there is a second assurance to 
a saint respecting, not himself, but 
the believers who remain behind: 
**The Lord will visit you.'* In 



12 ^^^^y WEEP EST THOU? 

Joseph*s case there was explicit pro- 
mise from the Lord. Abraham and 
Isaac had received it. It could not 
be doubted. But is there not a prom- 
ise in the Bible, somewhere, for all 
believers, in all conditions? 

'^ I die ; but God will surely visit 
you," a departing husband ma}- say 
to the loving and trusted stay of his 
life, *^ for he is the husband of the 
widow. He will surely make his 
promise good.'* 

^^ I die ; but God will surely visit 
you," he may say to his children, 
for He has said, ^* Leave thy father- 
less children : I will preserve them 
alive.'* (Jer. xlix: ii.) 

'* I die ; but God w^ll surely visit 
you," may a minister sa}^ to his peo- 
ple, for he has said : '^ I am with you 
always, even to the end of the world." 

And so in all the var3nng condi- 
tions of saints. Let the bereavement 



WHY WEEP EST THOU? 13 

be ever so keen — let the blow be ever 
so sudden, coming like the bolt from 
the serene sky — let the trouble be ever 
so heavy/' God is a very present help." 
When father and mother forsake, He 
takes up the orphan. A Father of 
the fatherless, and a Judge of the 
widow, is He from His holy habita- 
tion. When, as in the inimitable 
pathos of Psalm 142, the desolate and 
friendless waif, says: *'I looked on 
the right hand, and beheld, but there 
was no man that would know me ; 
refuge failed me ; no man cared for 
my soul " — there is an instant and suf- 
ficient alternative : '' I cried unto 
thee, O Lord ; I said, ' Thou art my 
refuge and my portion in the land of 
the living.' " (v. 5.) 

Now, what enables one to give 
such assurance to the living from 
closing, dying lips? One word an- 
swers—Faith. And what is it? Jo- 



14 ^^y WEEP EST THOU? 

seph*s case may instruct us. He 
merely believed what God said ; not, 
recollect, an inference from God's 
general character, or a deduction 
from what he supposed God's attri- 
butes should be, but he held the be- 
lief of a definite word of the Lord. A 
promise is as necessary to faith as 
light to vision, or a fulcrum to the 
lever. And it is not only essential to 
the giving, it is also to the receiving, 
comfort. Tell an unbeliev^er of Jesus 
as the resurrection and the life — tell 
him of acceptance and immediate 
blessedness. You only give him 
words, that mean no more to him 
than the happy hunting-grounds of 
the savage, or the elysium of Virgil, 
To him, if he is sincere and logical, 
his nearest and dearest go out friend- 
less, solitary, into the great darkness, 
they know not — he knows not^iow, 
or whither. A funeral service is to 



WI/V WEEP EST THOU? 15 

him only a beautiful custom, and 
prayer or praise— an outlet for human 
feeling. Where infidels are not 
^' without natural affection/' the death 
of their beloved ought to be to them 
both inexplicable and intolerable, and 
I do not wonder at their angry re- 
proaches of they know not what, or 
the hasty conclusion to w^hich they 
leap, that no benevolent being could 
do anything so cruel. So that you 
may be able to give, and when you 
lose your beloved ones here, that 
you may be able to take comfort, 
reader, believe. Joseph had his eye 
on the promise of the land. Believers, 
too, have their promised land, the 
land of peace, the land of re-union, 
the happy land, the land of upright- 
ness. They are like the members of 
a family parting for the night, going 
each to his bed, and counting confi- 
dently on meeting in the morning. 



1 6 'WHY WEEP EST THOU? 

III. There is a third aspect in which 
we may properly look at the final 
scenes of believers' earthly course. 
They have a double claim on surviv- 
ing friends. They are entitled to 
our contmited affectio?t. We do not 
count them *'the loved and lost." 
They do not cease to be ours ; and now 
they are more worthy our love than 
ever they were before. Men some- 
times deemed the Covenanters hard 
and stern because they made such 
stanch resistance to wrong. Oh, how 
little they know them ! There was 
Halyburton, strong as a man, and a 
theologian, who early lost a little 
son, George. Just before his death, 
he said, '' I am thinking on the pleas- 
ant spot that I may get to lie in, close 
beside Mr. Rutherford and Principal 
Anderson. I will come in as a little 
one among them, and I will get my 
little George in my hand, and oh ! zue 



'JVIIV WEEPEST THOU? 17 

%vill be a group of bomiie dust.'' That 
was his way of saying how Christ 
keeps even the bodies of His people. 

They have a right to grateful re- 
membrance. The dear memorial, the 
unostentatious monument that does 
not challenge attention so much to 
the wealth of the living as the worth 
of the dead — the befitting memoir in 
notable cases ; all these are as they 
ought to be. *' The righteous shall 
be had in everlasting remembrance/* 

And we owe them imitation. It is 
the sweetest tribute. It is the most 
fitting homage we can bring them. 
We can be ''• baptized for the dead.'* 
They used in ancient times, when the 
warrior died, to lay aside his sword 
and shield until his eldest son, grown 
to man's estate, could bear them. 
And oh ! ye children of godly par- 
ents, are ye as loyal to their memory 
as chivalry and honor m^ide mat;- 
2 



1 8 ^^Y WEEP EST THOU? 

kind ? Have you put on their armor 
and taken their places among the 
Lord's sacramental host? 

There is another claim the depart- 
ing saint may set up. Joseph exacted 
a pledge from his brethren. They 
bound themselves in the most solemn 
way to bear his bones into the sacred 
soil. Not, we may well believe, be- 
cause he thought the mouldering body 
would be affected thereby, but be- 
cause he would show the tenacity of 
his own faith, and keep alive the hope 
among the Hebrew seed, did he ex- 
act this pledge. 

And there are promises that the dy- 
ing, in virtue of the lives they have 
lived, the prayers they have offered, 
the words they have spoken, the en- 
treaties and the tears with which they 
sought to win — in virtue of their near- 
ness to heaven, and the sacredness and 



IVJ7V WEEP EST THOU? ig 

elevation of their place — there are 
promises they may claim from us. 
Are there none of my readers who 
have seen the claim set up, but who 
have not yet acknowledged it? Are 
there none of you who were charged 
by departing relatives to meet them 
in heaven ? They held your hands — 
they looked you infhe face with in- 
effable tenderness — they pressed the 
plea, and you said — you could not 
do otherwise — " Yes, by God's help, 
we will ! '* 

Well, have you kept the charge? 
Have you set about redeeming the 
pledge ? Are you on the way ? Are 
your eyes and steps Zionward? 

Only two things remain to be 
said. All shall die. Your friends, on 
whom you lean — your beloved ones, 
who are everything to you — your 
idols — shall die. Your Josephs shall 



20 JV//y WEEP EST THOU? 

pass a\va3\ To whom will ye then 
look? You shall die. Have you the 
comfort of knowing your safety in 
Christ? Can you give comfort to 
others ? 

Believers ! One stay never fails. 
'' I die ; but the Lord "—He " dieth 
no more." He liveth for evermore. 
He has the keys of hell and of death. 
He is a stay and support to His peo- 
ple. He stands by them and strength- 
ens them. He ever lives to intercede 
for them. They do not die as Ste- 
phen did, nor need the vision that 
made him visibly triumphant, but as 
really as to him, though the opened 
heavens do not show it. He is at the 
right of the throne, ''standing," be- 
cause He is active on their behalf, 
because He pleads their cause, be- 
cause He waits to receive and wel- 
come them ; and in Him and with 
Him they live for evermore. 



By 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

029 789 358 



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